Scott Neylon saga: new answers and old questions

A spate of letters to the Newcastle Herald over several years expressed a variety of views.

They came from perspectives including that of a pensioner and grandfather, and were attributed to a resident of suburbs including Mayfield West, Mayfield, Dudley or Stockton.

The trouble is, they were all under one name.

That name happens to belong to City of Newcastle chief executive Jeremy Bath's best friend, who is based in Japan.

Mr Bath and Mr Neylon have both maintained that Mr Neylon is the author of the letters, which have followed Mr Bath's career progression.

The report from Pinnacle Integrity, released on April 17 after public pressure including from this newspaper on the basis of transparency, found that complaints against Mr Bath were not substantiated.

The report itself came after NSW Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig urged the council to inquire.

The inquiry was focused on whether a breach of the council's own code of conduct occurred, rather than into the letters themselves in a broader sense.

That may explain why the report never addresses the letters under Mr Neylon's name presenting him as a resident of several different suburbs.

It does take several allegations made by its witnesses - including an erroneous inference that the Newcastle Herald published street addresses of those involved - on face value.

In a statement, Pinnacle Integrity described the reviewer's role as "to establish the truth having regard to available evidence" in a process that is "scrupulously objective, independent and fair".

It goes on to point out it cannot seize records nor enforce participation, and that it does not seek "to apportion guilt to validate a predetermined or preferred outcome".

There would be no need to compel this newspaper's participation as dramatically suggested in the powers mentioned above if they wanted to examine Donna Page's expansive series on the subject.

"Whilst the procedural framework that underpins reviews might not satisfy those seeking a desired outcome, conduct reviewers remain bound by those procedures," their statement says.

"If there is a strongly held or political view that this process needs to change, then that is a matter for the government of the day."

That would be Mr Hoenig, who in December told this masthead that "the current code of conduct is not fit for purpose" and that the system was a "shambles".

Newspapers do not go to the polls - and neither does Mr Bath.

The repeated suggestion that asking questions of those paid from the public purse yet not accountable to voters could only be the work of political enemies, sells both the imagination and the public intelligence short.

Questions of probity require no motive, only answers.

While the investigators did not contact the Herald, despite its significant inquiries into the letters, they were happy to speak for this newspaper when they suggested Mr Bath could have written his letters under "a John Doe" alias to avoid backlash.

In the hypothetical case of the city's highest-paid bureaucrat talking about issues involving the council, it would surely be difficult to argue his identity is irrelevant to a reader.

As lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes notes in the report, "it is hard to limit the scope of conversation between friends".

There is reassurance the code of conduct was not breached, but why did Mr Neylon's letters falsify his suburb?

We remain none the wiser.

City of Newcastle appears satisfied the matter is at an end.

Beyond the council's orbit, though, that too may prove to be a matter of opinion.